


Roses Have Thorns

by YaoiBunny8702



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Near Death, Overdosing, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 13:07:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17767355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaoiBunny8702/pseuds/YaoiBunny8702
Summary: Life wasn't sunshine and rainbows, Akira knew that. Still, though, it didn't lessen the pain any. After all, beautiful as they may be, roses have thorns.





	Roses Have Thorns

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all remember when I said, "I plan to have this done by the end of the week"?  
> What I MEANT to say was, "I'll finish writing it the day I announce it's even a thing and upload it the next day".
> 
> In all seriousness though, this story deals with a lot of really serious stuff. Read at your own risk.
> 
> TW: Child Abuse / Neglect, Attempted Suicide, Depression.

Akira always saw the world through a monochrome lens. He found it hard to see any good in anything, but for the sake of pleasing the people around him, he always pretended. It was his only saving grace.

Things weren't quite as bad when he was younger, but around the start of primary school, everything started to change...

He could never keep up with the expectations that everyone always put on him, and every time he failed, he felt as though he were letting people down. He always blamed himself for the way his mother turned out.

During his last year of elementary school, his mother started training him rigorously and hiring special tutors to teach him anything he didn't understand perfectly. She had her sights set on an elite primary school. She had tried so hard to get into that school when she was a little girl, but she ended up getting ill on the day of the entrance exams. Now she's passing down her failed dreams onto her only child. In the end, Akira ended up failing the entrance exams, and his mother was devastated. It was around that time that the fights between his parents started occurring more and more frequently. One particularly heated argument ended with the smashing of glass and Akira's father storming out of the house in the middle of the night. He didn't come back until two days had passed, and Akira was too young at the time to fully comprehend the repugnant smell of alcohol that surrounded him, although that smell would become something he'd come to know _all_ too well in the coming years.

 

* * *

  
"Do you really have to leave?" Haru asked, a frown marring her sweet face.

Akira was surrounded by his friends. People who genuinely _cared_ about him. He didn't want to leave.

"Yeah..." He answered, voice level. On the inside, he was screaming, though nobody would ever hear it.

"Oh! What if we had one last celebration before you go? That way, you can at least leave on a happy note." Ann smiled cheerfully in an attempt to lighten the mood. Akira winced as the bruises on his arm throbbed again.

"Ooh, yeah! A party!" Futaba jumped excitedly at the idea.

"I'm not opposed to the idea." Yusuke stated, a faint glimmer in his eyes, possibly at the thought of the food.

"Neither am I." Makoto smiled softly.

For a long while, nobody said anything. Akira was half-expecting a childish voice to call out, demanding some fatty tuna, or to tell them that it was late and he needed to go to sleep. As annoyed as Akira had gotten at him at times, deep down, he found his concerned nagging a bit endearing. The cafe was much too quiet during the day without Morgana around.

Ann nudged Ryuji, who had been silent throughout most of the conversation.

"Hey, Ryuji, you haven't said anything in a while. You okay?" Her eyes softened in concern. Ryuji started with a little jump.

"O-oh, yeah, 'm fine. Sounds good." Ryuji waved her off, and she simply shrugged, but mentally noted to remember to talk to him later.

 

* * *

  
Life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, at least, not for most. Some lucky few had it easy, and rarely had to work a day in their lives yet were able to live comfortably. Others had little to nothing, and had to work _multiple_ strenuous jobs just to provide food and shelter for their families. Akira knew his problems were third-world. He knew that there were people out there that were worse off than him. He knew that, yet it still didn't change the sharp pains he got in his chest while he packed up his belongings. With all of the little trinkets and decorations his friends had given him over the year taken down and in shoved in boxes, the attic somehow felt more like the dusty, barren attic that it truly was.

Roses were beautiful. Anyone with eyes could tell you that. However, beautiful as they may be, they have thorns.

 

* * *

  
Ryuji was the last person to show up. This, of course, did not go unnoticed by the others, especially Ann.

" _Ryuji_ , you're late!" She smacked him halfheartedly, an angry pout on her face.

"Sorry. My ma needed me to pick up a few things for at the store her before I left." Ryuji rubbed the back of his neck, a sincerely regretful look on his face.

Akira wanted so badly to just say, ' _it's okay_ ', but his tongue caught in his throat. For some reason, it only just kicked in that this really was their last time getting together like this. Tomorrow, he was leaving to go back to Inaba. His throat constricted with so many emotions that he had always pushed down before, but this time, it wasn't working.

He ignored his friends' questions as he rushed to the bathroom, keeping his head low.

He spent the next couple of moments bent over the toilet dry-heaving, no sound escaping his mouth. He could feel the tears running down his face, but he didn't even bother wiping them away. Once he was sure he wasn't going to throw up, he staggered to the sink and stared listlessly at his own reflection. A dark voice in the back of his head began whispering horrible things to him. It said the truth.

' _Look at yourself. You're pathetic._ '

' _No wonder they didn't want you. They even paid just to get rid of you for a year._ ' He latched onto the sink in a death grip, letting his head fall down to rest on his arms. He freely let the tears soak his sleeves.

' _A reminder that I'm still human._ '

After a few moments, he lifted his head again and nearly yelped at the sharp throb that ripped its way through his skull. Another headache. Desperately, he flung open the medicine cabinet and looked at all of the different labels. Restoril. _That'll do_.

Akira twisted off the cap and popped a couple of the tablets into his mouth. Looking at himself again in the mirror, that voice came back to taunt him again.

' _It'd be so easy to just down the entire bottle. It'd be over so fast_.'

' _Nobody would even miss you._ '

He paused, glaring at his own reflection, which seemed to just be mocking him. Without a second thought, he tipped his head back and let the bottle's contents slip down his throat.

 

* * *

  
The group waited patiently in the cafe, chatting amongst themselves while they waited for Akira to finish up in the bathroom. Ann had seemed increasingly antsy with each minute that passed by. She tugged on Ryuji's shoulder.

"Hey, don't you think he's been in there a while?" Ryuji side-eyed the blonde girl then shrugged.

"Relax, Ann. He's probably just taking a dump or something."

Ann's face scrunched up in disgust and she smacked him.

" _Gross_ , Ryuji!"

All of a sudden, a terrified scream tore through the cafe, effectively silencing everyone. Even Sojiro whipped his head up, gaping in alarm in the direction of the bathroom where the scream had originated. The sound of something clattering to the floor and another scream immediately sent chills through their bodies. _What had happened?_

Sojiro leapt up and rushed to the bathroom door. The other teens stood a few feet back, watching with mixed concern and horror.

"Hey, what's going on in there? Are you okay, kid?"

When he got no response aside from a series of broken, unintelligible sobs, he tried the handle. The door was locked.

" _Akira_? Open the door!" He was panicking now. He tried forcing the lock, but it wouldn't budge. Finally, he gave in, settling with kicking the door in. Ryuji, Ann, and Makoto crowded around to see what was going on, while the others stood back, fearing the worst. None of them were prepared for the sight that met them.

Akira was curled up onto the floor, an empty bottle of sleeping pills at his feet. He was sobbing, gasping breaths coming in short intervals, and he was clutching at the front of his shirt. Sojiro scurried forward, lifting the boy into his arms.

" _God_ , what did you do?"

" _I'msorryI'msorrynonopleasepleaseno..._ " Akira was hysterical, babbling something incoherent, words slurring together.

Ryuji bolted forward, grabbing onto Akira. Sojiro looked lost for a moment, then jumped up and ran to the phone to call an ambulance.

"Hey, _hey_ , Akira, I'm _here_. Listen to me," Ryuji patted Akira's face to keep his focus, "you're gonna be _fine_ , okay? I _promise_!" Ryuji was crying now, too. He held his friend's face in his hands. Akira's hands flew up and latched onto him. He looked into his eyes.

" _I don't want to die..._ " Akira spoke in almost a whisper, voice shaking. Ryuji's eyes widened.

"Hey, you're not gonna die!" Ryuji pulled Akira in, practically cradling him as the dark-haired teen's movements slowed.

"I'm right here, Akira. I'm right here..."

 

* * *

  
When Akira opened his eyes, he found himself in a room he didn't recognize. He attempted to sit up, but was held back by something connected to his arm. A series of IVs. He could faintly hear the beeping of a heart monitor, but it sounded so far away. A blurry face appeared before him and said...something. Up was down and blue was red was yellow. Everything faded into darkness once again.

 

* * *

  
When he finally came to again, everything was much more clear. He could faintly make out the sounds of people talking outside the room. His body felt numb, though. The door opened, and Sojiro came in. He stopped in front of Akira's bed and he looked absolutely furious. He opened his mouth a couple of times to say something, but thought better of it. Eventually, the anger dissipated and Sojiro grabbed the chair behind him and dragged it towards the bed. He sat down, sighing. For a moment, he simply ran his hands over his face as though he didn't know what to say.

" _Look_ , kid, I can't fully understand what you're going through right now, but... I'll try. You don't have to tell me right now, but at least know that you can talk to me. About anything."

Akira gripped the edge of the blanket. His throat tightened with emotion, but he forced out a small ' _thank you_ ', which sent him into a small coughing fit.

"You know," Sojiro started, "they're going to be placing you under suicide watch now." Akira nodded numbly.

Before Sojiro left, he gave the boy one last look.

"Don't scare me like that again."

 

* * *

  
His friends all came to visit him over the following few days. The visits were mostly quiet, filled with sad, regretful glances. It was awkward, because Akira never knew what to say to them. The last person to visit was Ryuji. When he stepped into the room, he looked as if he would start crying at any moment, and Akira felt his heart ache.

"Uh, _hey_ dude..." Ryuji greeted him nervously, not looking him in the eyes.

"Hey, Ryuji." Akira spoke softly. Talking was still a bit odd with how scratchy his throat was.

Ryuji stood by the door for a bit, looking everywhere else but at his friend. Akira felt awful. His friends all had so much to deal with already, and now all he's done is put more stress on them.

"I'm sorry." Akira croaked out, voice a whisper. Ryuji snapped his gaze to Akira, now looking almost angry.

"Don't apologize, dammit!" He raised his voice. Akira almost apologized again, but held his tongue. Ryuji relaxed and stepped towards the bed.

"Dude, if anything, _I'm_ the one who should be sorry." Ryuji looked down sadly. Akira stared incredulously at the blonde. He was blaming himself for this?

" _Why_?" Akira asked. He just couldn't understand. Ryuji groaned, shaking his head.

" _Because_! I'm supposed to be your _best friend_ , but I couldn't even see that you were obviously hurting!" Ryuji was crying angry tears now. He reached forward and laid his head on Akira's stomach. Akira sighed softly and ran his fingers through the blonde's hair.

"There's no way you could have known, so don't beat yourself up over this. I've been like this for...a long time." Akira closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the pillow. Ryuji lifted his head to look at Akira.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Akira choked back his own tears, "I always tried so hard to be this... _perfect_ leader for everyone, but I'm _not!_ Until I met you guys, I couldn't even remember the last time I've been genuinely happy. Living at home was like... _hell_ , but I always lived with it because I never knew what it was like to have better, but now that I do... The thought of going back to that place was unbearable..." Akira muffled his sobs with his free hand. Ryuji stared sadly at him.

" _Akira_..."

Ryuji moved closer, wrapping the dark-haired teen in a warm hug. They stayed like this for what felt like forever, but when they finally parted, Ryuji brought a hand up and wiped away the tears running down Akira's face.

"Akira, you don't have to worry anymore. I won't let them take you back to that place, because I'm going to protect you. This _is_ your home now."

Akira felt a warmth light in his chest, an odd emotion that he hadn't felt in the longest time.

He felt _love_.

 

* * *

 

 

Things didn't get better immediately. After Akira was discharged from the hospital, Sojiro contacted Akira's parents and within the week, papers had been signed leaving him as Akira's legal guardian.

Of course, Akira still had times when he felt lingering sadness, and it was hard to get the motivation to do the things he needed to do, but at the end of the day, he always made it through, because he had his friends beside him. _He had Ryuji beside him._

While roses may have thorns, they make up for it with their pure beauty.

Things were going to be okay.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I did a good job with this. I did a bit of research to write this, believe it or not. I looked into different kinds of symptoms shown in a person who is overdosing in order to make this more realistic.
> 
> The reason I wrote this is because I had a dream about this scenario (most of my best story ideas come from my dreams, tbh), and I thought it'd be a good chance to try out writing this kind of thing.


End file.
